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Sunday, August 13, 2017

THIS IS BY NO MEANS A COMPLETE LIST OF THE CURRENT THREATS OF WAR AND ONGOING WARS, DOES NOT INCLUDE THREATS OF CIVIL WAR (LIKE IN THE U.S.?) BUT REPRESENTS THE IMMINENT THREATS REPORTED MOST OFTEN AND CURRENTLY IN MAJOR MEDIA AROUND THE WORLD.

THE LIST OF ONGOING WARS, DECLARED OR NOT, APPEARS AT THE END OF TODAY'S BLOG. IT IS UNFORTUNATE FOR ALL THOSE INVOLVED, BUT ESPECIALLY FOR THE CHILDREN IN THESE NATIONS, AND FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NO DESIRE FOR WAR BUT ALSO HAVE NO CHOICE IN THE MATTER. THAT WOULD INCLUDE MANY OF US.

The China Daily editorial said the clock was ticking and that it seemed like a clash would be “an inevitable conclusion” between the two prominent Asian countries if India did pull back its troops from the disputed Doklam region. “Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear will have got the message. Yet New Delhi refuses to come to its senses and pull its troops back to its own side of the border,” it stated.

The article referred to a border standoff between the two countries that has continued for over two months. The controversy began when India opposed China’s plan to extend a border road through a disputed plateau which Bhutan says is its Doklam region and China claims as part of its Donglang region.

India has expressed concern that the road, if completed, would make it easier for China to access India’s northeastern states. In the event of a conflict, India fears this would help China cut off its northeast from the rest of the country, the BBC reported.

Speaking in India’s parliament on Wednesday, Defense Minister Arun Jaitley said the country was ready to meet any challenge. Referring to the war that took place in 1962 between the two countries, which India lost, Jaitley said the country had learned many lessons from it.

“Some people are targeting our country’s sovereignty and integrity. But I am fully confident that our brave soldiers have capability to keep our country secure, may it be challenges on the eastern border or the western border,” he said, according to reports.

China and India share a border that extends 2,174 miles. Following the war in 1962, disputes in areas like Aksai Chin, Depsang Plains and some areas in the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, have remained unresolved.

Across Eastern Europe, Moscow and the transatlantic alliance are staging large-scale exercises to show they mean business.Tens of thousands of troops are on the move from the Baltic to the Black Sea, as NATO and Russia open up a series of massive military exercises the size of which the continent hasn’t seen since the Cold War.

Both sides claim the drills, which involve aircraft, warships, tanks and artillery, are purely defensive in nature. But it is clear the exercises are also meant to show off new capabilities and technologies, and display not only the strength of alliances, but how swiftly troops and heavy equipment can move to squash a threat at the frontier.

The Kremlin claims about 12,700 troops will be active in Belarus and Russia. Three Chinese warships are slated to arrive in Kaliningrad in July 21 to take part in a series of drills with the Russian navy and air force.

On Wednesday, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, singled out the American territory of Guam as a potential target. North Korean missiles have also recently landed not far from the coast of Japan, a crucial United States military ally. South Korea remains the most likely target of any North Korean counterattack should the United States take military action to try to stop the North’s nuclear and missile programs.

GUAM North Korea warned on Wednesday that it was considering a strike that would create “an enveloping fire” around Guam.

Guam is a potential target because it is a strategic American military outpost and home to nuclear-equipped bombers that can strike North Korea. Just this week two United States B-1 bombers flew from Guam over the Korean Peninsula. And North Korean missile tests suggest it is within range of the country’s arsenal.

JAPANIn Japan, specialists said that the most likely targets for any North Korean attack would be Tokyo, the political and commercial capital with some 35 million residents in its greater metropolitan area, and American military bases scattered around the country.

SOUTH KOREA South Korea has found several North Korean drones flying into its airspace.[Besides being an easy short-range target], North Korea could mobilize its sleeper spies in the South or use drones to attempt terrorist attacks, possibly involving chemical and biological agents, analysts said. In recent months, No hoarding or other signs of panic were reported in South Korea on Wednesday.

"It is not a matter of if but rather when the war in the Balkans will resume."

15 ONGOING WARS FEW HAVE HEARD OF :On any given day at any given moment in your life, there are at least 15 wars and armed conflicts actively going on all around the world — even if you’re only hearing about a few of them on the news. Every day, people are fighting to the death for the ideals they believe in. Some are fighting for independence and freedom. Some are dying for their right to be heard, to be treated as human beings. Others are desperately attempting to gain control of resources, roads and riches, and they’re willing to wield death in order to get them. Some even say they’re ultimately fighting in the name of peace. But all of the wars and conflicts on this list have been dismissed, forgotten, ignored and under-reported while the world stays busy looking the other way.

1~ Somalia has been in a Civil War for decades, and few ever talk about it. U.S. troops were deployed in 2007 in an attempt to establish peace, but armed conflicts have not stopped.

2~ The Kashmir unrest is widely reported in India, but rarely mentioned in the U.S. media. The unrest refers to a series of ongoing and violent protests that began in 2016. This conflict pits separatists against the existing Indian government. There have already been hundreds of casualties, mainly among children, in this ongoing conflict.

3~ Though it’s no longer in the news, war in Darfur continues to rage as government forces continually attack civilians living here. Sudanese armed forces launched an attack on Darfur in January 2016, and continued attacks through the rest of the year. During this time, government forces in Darfur killed civilians and destroyed hundreds of villages. In 2016, the UN estimated that up to 190,000 people in Darfur were displaced.

4~ Myanmar, once known as Burma, has been actively at war for decades. Civil War has raged in the country since 1948. Since the 1962 military coup in Myanmar, several different armed groups have opposed the controlling military power. There are many different ethnic groups in Myanmar attempting to become the dominant group through use of military force.

5~ Conflict in Ukraine has been pretty consistent since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but the country has only been in a high state of crisis since 2013. Primarily, Ukraine is split between two groups: the west and the east. Western Ukraine strongly supports integration with Europe.

The conflict in Ukraine became violent in late 2013, when the President of Ukraine dismissed a deal with the European Union in order to support stronger ties with Russia. Hundreds of thousands of protesters swarmed city hall and government areas to express their anger at this decision. Violent opposition continues to remain in the Donbass region of Ukraine.

6~ Since December 2013, more than 50,000 people have died in the South Sudan Civil War... It’s estimated that 1.6 million people have been displaced by this war...In 2016, violence broke out again between the government and opposing forces The conflict is getting worse, rather than better, and the death toll continues to rise.

7~ Peru was a country violently at war from 1980 to 2000, with separatist armies clashing against the official government in a fight for control of the country. Though violence has diminished considerably, protest groups continuously clash with the Peruvian government due to discrimination and various human rights violations. Nearly 70,000 people died in the Peruvian Civil War, which some consider to be ongoing.

8~ Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is ongoing, though it has slowed down in recent months. Widespread political instability here has led to nearly 500,000 refugees fleeing the area. There are at least 70 armed groups operating outside the bounds of the government there.

Elections in the country have recently been postponed, causing further anger and conflict from opposition groups. Protesters demanding an election have been killed and wounded by police and government security forces.

9~ The North Caucasus region of Russia has been plagued by violence for two decades. Several insurgent groups in North Caucasus have joined with the Islamic State.

Russian armed forces have met terrorists threats in North Caucasus with deadly force in several armed clashes. Officially, the Russian government has recently ceased its counter-terrorism efforts against IS in North Caucasus. Unofficially, skirmishes and attacks continue to break out in the region as led by terrorist militant groups.

10~ The violent war in West Papua is rarely, if ever, reported in the U.S., even though the U.S. played a key role in this continuing conflict. Colonized by the Dutch in 1898, West Papua achieved independence in 1961. Within months, the Indonesian government invaded the fledgling country and started armed conflict with the Netherlands and the civilian population in West Papua. The U.S. government advised the Netherlands to hand control of West Papua to Indonesia, which the country did. People in West Papua have been fighting for independence from the Indonesian government ever since. People in West Papua face death for protesting and jail time for even raising the West Papuan flag.

11~ The War in Cabinda, also known as the Angola Civil War, is called “Angola’s forgotten war.” Rich in oil, African leaders have tried to split Cabinda from the rest of Angola in order to take advantage of this natural resource. The Angolan government has violently opposed these efforts, leading to several bloody military actions.

The Republic of Cabinda has been trying for years to become recognized as an independent nation. Currently, only France has acknowledged it as such. To the rest of the world, Cabinda is still a part of Angola.

12~ An Islamic terrorist group currently known as Wilayat Sinai has been carrying out attacks in Egypt since 2005, though the frequency of these attacks are not widely reported. The group has declared their allegiance to the Islamic State, and has launched several attacks on the existing Egyptian government and military sites. Civilians have also been targeted in terror attacks sponsored by Wilayat Sinai. The Egyptian government has responded with aggression of their own, leading to the destruction of many civilian homes in the country. Recently, Amnesty International has raised concerns about people mysteriously disappearing at the hands of the Egyptian government in an attempt to force peace.

13~ The Hybrid War began in Mozambique, but has spread throughout South Central Africa into Zambia, Angola and Malawi as well. The clash is between the current government in Mozambique and the Mozambican National Resistance Movement, RENAMO. This ongoing war has been marked by violent conflicts since 2013, with tensions escalating in early 2016. The Mozambique Liberation Front, FRELIMO, is currently in control of the region. As tensions rise between the two groups, the fate of Mozambique and the surrounding area remains uncertain.

14~ For months, Japan and China have seen rising tensions between their two countries in the East China Sea. Both countries have increased their military operations against each other in the region. China has recently built new naval ships to police the area, and increased the amount of their patrols of the waters. Japan has scrambled jets more than 500 times in direct response to Chinese aircraft flying near their borders. The countries are disputing the ownership of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, which were claimed by Japan in 1895. China asserted their own claim over the 8 disputed islands in the 1970s. When the Japanese government bought three of the island from private owners in 2012, tensions began brewing between the two countries again.

15~ The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. The violation of a ceasefire agreement in April 2016 shows that tensions in this disputed border region between Armenia and Azerbaijan are dangerously heating up. The population of this region is 95 percent Armenian, but the land is recognized by the world to be part of Azerbaijan. The two countries managed to live by this agreement until the collapse of the Soviet Union, leading to a full-scale war in the early 1990s when the region declared independence. Since the 1994 ceasefire, violations of the agreement have been frequent and violent. Five soldiers fighting for Azerbaijan were recently killed by Armenian separatists in February 2017 during a border battle.

OTHER ONGOING WARS, 2017THESE 'CONFLICTS' HAVE RESULTED IN AT LEAST 10,000 DEATHS IN THE PAST YEAR ALONE. ~ 10,000 or more deaths in current or past year.(Number of known/acknowledged 'cumulative' dead follow name of the war)1- War in Afghanistan, 1,240,000–2,000,0002- Iraq War, Current Civil War, 268,000.3- Mexican Drug War, 104,000–144,000+4- Syrian Civil War, 312,000–470,000

AS I SAID, THIS IS NOT ALL VIOLENT, ARMED CONFLICTS/WARS, BUT IT GIVES US AN IDEA OF HOW WIDESPREAD THESE ARE, HOW LONG NATION HAS RISEN UP AGAINST NATION, AND PEOPLE AGAINST THEIR NEIGHBORS.

IT DOESN'T INCLUDE "GANG WARS" IN CITIES ACROSS AMERICA AND IN OTHER NATIONS.

DEATH HAS BECOME SOMETHING THAT IS TO BE EXPECTED, HARDLY RAISES AN EYEBROW ANYMORE, SOMETHING NOT REPORTED WHILE IDIOTIC POLITICAL DISAGREEMENTS ARE, WHILE WHAT HOLLYWOOD OR MUSIC STARS ARE DOING IS, WHILE SPORTS SCORES ARE REPORTED DAILY.

WAR IS WHAT WE DO. WAR IS JUST A PART OF LIFE ON EARTH....RIGHT? UNTIL WE ARE VICTIMS OF WAR...THEN EVERYTHING CHANGES. AND IT WILL CHANGE FOR US HERE IN THE U.S...SOON.

Sunday, August 6, 2017

***A WARNING FOR THE VERY SENSITIVE: THERE WILL BE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC VIDEOS AND PHOTOS BELOW OF THE EFFECTS ON CHILDREN OF AGENT ORANGE.FOR THOSE WHO ARE HYPERSENSITIVE, IT WILL BE BEST IF YOU READ NO FURTHER AND DON'T VIEW THE VIDEOS AND THE PHOTOS.THOSE FILMS ARE TERRIBLE TO SEE, BUT, FROM HERE ON, WE WILL LOOK AT HARSH REALITY AND THAT CAN BE VERY HARD TO SEE, VERY DISTURBING, BUT SEE IT WE MUST.WHY?SO WE DON'T FORGET.SO WE CAN PERHAPS NEVER LET THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO DO SUCH THINGS CONTINUE CREATING NIGHTMARES FOR CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS.BECAUSE INNOCENCE DESERVES A CHANCE TO LIVE WITHOUT SUFFERING. ***

THIS
BLOG CAME ABOUT AFTER A TEARFUL PHONE CALL FROM A DEAR, DEAR FRIEND WHO
ASKED ME IF IT WAS TRUE THAT THE EFFECTS OF AGENT ORANGE ON A FATHER
COULD BE PASSED ON TO THE THIRD GENERATION...TO HIS GRANDCHILDREN.

I SAID, "YES, AND WE NOW THINK IT MAY GO ON FOR AS MUCH AS 12 GENERATIONS. WHY DO YOU ASK?"

BUT MY HEART KNEW WHAT SHE WOULD SAY...IT WAS HER GRANDCHILD, JUST BORN...WITH SERIOUS BIRTH DEFECTS. THEIR SON HAD BEEN "MILDLY" AFFECTED BY AGENT ORANGE, DIDN'T MARRY UNTIL AGE 38. BUT NOW HIS SON WAS SO BADLY AFFECTED THAT THE CHILD MIGHT NOT LIVE TO SEE HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY."WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL ME THIS WHEN MY SON WAS BORN?" SHE WEPT. "IF WE HAD KNOWN, HE WOULDN'T HAVE HAD CHILDREN."WE
TALKED ABOUT THE DECADES OF DENIAL, HOW SOME STILL DENY THAT THESE
THINGS CAN HAPPEN, HOW THE FIELD OF GENETICS HAS ADVANCED SO FAR SINCE
THEN.SHE SAID, "I'M GLAD P__ DIDN'T LIVE TO SEE THIS. BUT PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW! EVERYBODY NEEDS TO KNOW!" [HER HUSBAND, YOU SEE. HAD DIED FROM THE EFFECTS OF AGENT ORANGE, CANCER. HE FOUGHT TO LIVE AND TO MAKE THE MILITARY ACKNOWLEDGE WHY HE WAS ILL FOR ALMOST 12 YEARS.]YES,
EVERYONE DOES NEED TO KNOW WHAT'S STILL HAPPENING BECAUSE OF AGENT
ORANGE...TO INNOCENT CHILDREN WHO ARE BORN 30-40 YEARS AFTER THE LAST
SPRAY REACHED THE GROUND. FOR YOU, BELOVED FRIEND, I WILL TELL ALL WHO READ HERE AND THOSE WILL KNOW AND, HOPEFULLY, WILL TELL OTHERS. NOT TO "BASH AMERICA", NOT TO THROW STONES AT GHOSTS, BUT TO INFORM. WHILE
MANY, TOO MANY, AMERICAN VETERANS YET SUFFER THE HORRORS OF AGENT
ORANGE, THEIR CHILDREN, AND THEIRS, EVEN MORE VIETNAMESE VETERANS,
CIVILIANS AND THEIR CHILDREN MAY SUFFER. DOES IT MATTER WHO SUFFERS MOST? THAT ONE SUFFERS ALONE, WITH NO HOPE, IS NOT ACCEPTABLE, IS IT?SO, FOR YOU, FOR THE NEW LIFE YOU AND I PRAY WILL FIND A "MIRACLE", MY FRIEND, THIS. (WITH ALL MY LOVE ~ WW) WHAT YOU SEE BELOW ARE REAL, UN-RETOUCHED PHOTOGRAPHS OF REAL CHILDREN. THEIR IMAGES CAN BE FOUND IN SEVERAL DOCUMENTARY FILMS, BOOKS AND ARTICLES.

SOME OF THESE BIRTH DEFECTS ARE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO BELIEVE...THE MANY BORN WITHOUT EYES, EVEN WITHOUT EYE SOCKETS... THE CONJOINED TWINS WITH EVEN MORE HORRIFIC DEFORMITIES OF LIMBS, EXTERNAL ORGANS... THE MANY SUFFERING FROM HYDROCEPHALUS, NEURAL TUBE DISORDERS, ANENCEPHALY.... TOO MANY TO NAME ON ONE PAGE. THEY ARE REAL CHILDREN AND WHAT THEY SUFFER IS LINKED TO AGENT ORANGE, BUT THE CHEMICAL COMPANIES WHO 'INVENTED' AND PROVIDED 'ORANGE' TO THE U.S. MILITARY AND THE MILITARY AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ALL DENY THESE EFFECTS, ALTHOUGH WE SEE THE SAME DEFECTS AMONG ALL WHO WERE EXPOSED TO THIS 'AGENT'.VETERANS IN EVERY NATION THAT FOUGHT IN VIETNAM HAVE HAD CHILDREN, AND NOW GRANDCHILDREN, WITH THE SAME IDENTICAL DEFECTS AND DEFORMITIES.THE COMMON LINK IS AGENT ORANGE. WE DON'T KNOW YET HOW MANY GENERATIONS WILL BE AFFECTED AS THESE ARE.

ABOVE: MANY WHO WERE STILLBORN ARE PRESERVED IN FORMALDEHYDE FOR POSSIBLE FUTURE RESEARCH AND TO REMIND ALL THAT THE EFFECTS OF CHEMICAL WARFARE ARE TOO TERRIBLE TO RISK. SOME HOSPITALS HAVE SHELVES LINED WITH THESE PRESERVED TINY BODIES.

Hong
Tu, 5 months old, with Encephalocele — a rare neural tube defect
characterised by sac-like protrusions of the brain and the membranes
that cover it through openings in the skull. Photo: Ash Anand / NEWSMODO

Some defects had no known name because they had never been seen before, may be caused from multiple gene damage in utero. This child and others appear in one of the videos which shows 'normal' children peering through the bars seen behind this child, laughing at the children with these birth defects..Some in that video make one wonder how they can live and have such horrible deformities.

Children of the Apocalypse - VietnamThe US army dumped Agent Orange on a third of Vietnam during the war. Fifty years on there are 800,000 third generation victims of the spray.

The
patients at Friendship Village (seen in the above video) suffer from constant sickness and
physical defects. And there's no cure. "It saddens me...I can't do
anything about it". A Vietnamese war Veteran adds, "The Americans don't
want to acknowledge the damage!". And now a fourth generation of Agent
Orange victims is about to endure the consequences of the terrible
disfigurements imprinted in their genetic material.

AGENT ORANGE PHOTO GALLERY...not for the faint, but for the REALIST, for any who deeply care, it needs seeing. From
1962-1971 Agent Orange caused over 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and
led to at least 500,000 children being born with birth defects.

THESE SMALL ONES, THESE INNOCENTS' LIVES ARE FOREVER RUINED BY SOMETHING THEY NEVER SAW FALL FROM THE SKY.

October 21st, 2015

MSAVLC (Medical and Scientific Aid for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia)Hoa Binh Peace Villageis
part of Tu Du Obstetric and Gynaecological Hospital in Ho Chi Minh
City. Since it was founded in 1990 it has been home to some 400
children, most of them suffering from the effects of Agent Orange.

Some
children are orphans, and others are so severely disabled that they
could not be cared for by their families at home. Many parents have
several children suffering from disabilities and they just cannot cope.
Some children have been abandoned in the grounds of the hospital by
these desperate families.

It is estimated that today still 1.5%
of babies born at this hospital are affected by Agent Orange, and there
is a room at the hospital which contains the preserved bodies of about
150 hideously deformed babies, stillborn. Some have two heads; some have
unbelievably deformed bodies and twisted limbs. They are kept as a
record of the terrible consequences of chemical weaponry.

THE COVER-UP NEITHER "STUDY" ADMITTED THAT AGENT ORANGE WAS CAUSING ALL THE BIRTH DEFECTS THEY FOUND IN VIETNAMESE CHILDREN WHOSE PARENTS HAD BEEN EXPOSED TO AGENT ORANGE.

TO ADMIT THIS WOULD HAVE OPENED THE DOOR TO THE U.S. BEING HELD RESPONSIBLE, LIBEL, AND PERHAPS EVEN TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT BEING CHARGED WITH WAR CRIMES, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

NO ONE WAS WILLING TO RISK THAT AND THE U.S.GOVERNMENT IS STILL FIGHTING TO KEEP FROM ADMITTING, DESPITE ALL ENSUING EVIDENCE, THAT "ORANGE" WAS TO BLAME FOR MUCH OF ANYTHING EXCEPT DEFORESTATION.

IT TOOK OVER 20 MORE YEARS FOR THE V.A. (VETERANS ADMINISTRATION) TO ADMIT A "LIKELY", A "POSSIBLE" LINK BETWEEN AGENT ORANGE AND ONE SINGLE BIRTH DEFECT IN HUMANS.

DURING THAT TIME, THE OFTEN-DISHONEST CDC (CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL) SIDED WITH THE MILITARY. Two studies conducted by the CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, investigated whether Agent Orange exposure was linked to birth defects: the 1983 Birth Defects Study and the 1988 Vietnam Experience Study. In the 1983 Birth Defects Study, CDC researchers studied if Vietnam veterans were more likely to father children with birth defects.

The researchers studied two cohorts of children born in the metropolitan Atlanta area between 1968 and 1980, one with birth defects and the other without.

They determined that in each group, the percentage of fathers who had served in Vietnam was approximately nine percent, suggesting that veterans were NOT at increased risk of fathering infants with birth defects.

The researchers also attempted to measure Agent Orange exposure of the male veterans through military records and interviews, finding that veterans with more exposure reported more birth defects in their offspring.

However, the CDC researchers stated that their study was not sufficient to determine a DEFINITE link between Agent Orange exposure and the occurrence of those birth defects.

In 1996, the US National Academy of Sciences reported that there was "evidence" that suggested dioxin and Agent Orange exposure caused spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal cord develops improperly.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs' subsequent provision of disability compensation for spina bifida-affected children marked the U.S. government's first official acknowledgement of a link between Agent Orange and ANY birth defects. [King, Jesse,, Chou, Cecilia, "Agent Orange Birth Defects". Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2017-03-07). ISSN: 1940-5030]

It is now 2017, and spina bifida and related neural tube defects are STILL the ONLY birth defects the V.A. admits "are likely" associated with Agent Orange.

The U.S. has maintained that something the mothers did or didn't do during their pregnancies could have caused these deformities, these birth defects, or that the source of dioxin could have come from the Vietnamese themselves, or that other genetic factors had come into play.

They disallowed testimonies that the ONE thing all these parents had in common was exposure to 'Orange' and said they could be lying about their exposure.

They said the SAME thing about our own returning troops and their wives.

Though Veterans Affairs compensated the families of veterans for specific birth defects related to MATERNAL military service, they insist that studies have yet to establish a link between those birth defects and PATERNAL Agent Orange exposure.

LET US REMEMBER THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT RADIATION EXPOSURE...THE SAME THING ABOUT DEPLETED URANIUM EXPOSURE...THE SAME THING ABOUT THE VACCINES THEY GAVE OUR TROOPS THAT HAD MERCURY AND ALUMINUM IN THEM...THE SAME THING: "IT IS NOT OUR FAULT. THERE IS NO SOLID PROOF."

THERE WOULD BE PLENTY OF "SOLID PROOF" IF AMERICAN TESTING LABORATORIES WEREN'T AFRAID OF WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEY REVEALED THE FACTS, THE WHOLE TRUTH.

THOSE WHO OWN INDEPENDENT LABS HAVE SEEN WHAT HAPPENS TOP "GOVERNMENT WHISTLEBLOWERS", THOSE WHO DO TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH.

THOSE ARE MALIGNED IN THE MEDIA, HAVE THEIR REPUTATIONS SHREDDED BY COLLEAGUES, LABELED AS FRAUDS, LIARS, ARE BANKRUPTED, OR WORSE.

I WOULD NOT BE AFRAID TO WAGER THAT A GOOD COLLEGE GENETICS STUDENT COULD PROVE THE LINKS TO ALL THOSE DEFECTS AND CANCERS IN UNDER A YEAR, GIVEN LAB ACCESS AND BEING UNAFRAID TO REPORT HIS/HER FINDINGS.

The film provided documentary information regarding the period from 1961 to 1972 when U.S. troops sprayed over 80 million liters of defoliant, mostly the highly toxic Agent Orange, over a quarter of the area in southern Vietnam.

It was chemical warfare on the largest scale ever seen in history, destroying many generations of Vietnamese and the country’s environment and ecological system as well, and causing birth defects in the families of soldiers from many nations who were "boots on the ground" during the Vietnam war: Americans, Australians, British, French, Russians, Chinese, Japanese. Laotians. Cambodians...it was a long list.They all took Agent Orange home with them inside their bodies.

The Dark Shadow of Agent Orange | Retro Report | The New York Times [This also has a short video attached to the article.] Britain was the first to use defoliants as a war tactic in Southeast Asia. That was in the early 1950s in Malaya, then a British colony, before it became the independent Malaysia. British planes sprayed Malayan jungles with chemicals to strip trees bare and deprive communist guerrillas of cover. They also destroyed crops that the insurgents relied on for sustenance. A decade later, in what was then South Vietnam, United States armed forces resorted to precisely the same methods on an enormous scale in their long struggle against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese fighters.

No need for alarm, Washington officialdom and chemical company executives insisted at the time. Agent Orange did not harm humans, they said.

As the 1960s wore on, those assurances increasingly rang hollow. Researchers found evidence of birth defects in lab animals. American scientists and others began to speak out against the spraying. Opposition to the herbicide campaign mounted, arm in arm with spreading protests against the war itself. In 1970, the Agent Orange spraying stopped. Other chemicals continued to be used until Jan. 7, 1971, when the entire herbicide program was scrapped after a final Ranch Hand run.

But Agent Orange’s legacy was only beginning. More than 40 years later, it still casts a long shadow.

Here at home, the war has not ended for many of the 2.8 million servicemen and women who went to Vietnam.These ailing veterans are convinced that their cancers and nervous disorders and skin diseases — not to mention congenital maladies afflicting some of their children — are a result of their contact with Agent Orange. Often enough, that linkage has not been established incontrovertibly. Studies on Agent Orange’s effects tend to use language that is less than absolute. Certain illnesses, for instance, are said to be “associated” with dioxin exposure. Or there is a “presumptive” connection.

Perhaps no two people embodied the moral complexities and the agony of Agent Orange more graphically than Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. and his son Elmo R. Zumwalt III. Admiral Zumwalt led American naval forces in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970, before he became chief of naval operations. He ordered the spraying of Agent Orange. The son was in Vietnam at about the same time as the father, commanding a Navy patrol boat. Years later, doctors found that he had lymphoma and Hodgkin’s disease.

He died in 1988 at 42. His son, Elmo IV, was born with congenital disorders.The older Zumwalts wrote about their experiences in a book, “My Father, My Son,” published in 1986 and later made into a television movie. Also in 1986, they collaborated on an article for The New York Times Magazine. The son could not scientifically prove that Agent Orange was responsible for his suffering and that of other veterans, he wrote in The Times. For his part, Admiral Zumwalt, who died in 2000 at 79, wrote that even knowing what he had come to learn about the chemical’s effects, he “still would have ordered the defoliation to achieve the objectives it did, of reducing casualties.” All the same, he became a strong advocate for ailing veterans and the national obligation to compensate them. In 1990, he wrote a report on Agent Orange for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He also testified before a House subcommittee, strongly denouncing previous studies that described the chemical spray as harmless. “That was, of course, the conventional propaganda of the time,” he said.

I DOUBT VERY MUCH THAT MANY OF THE VETERANS WHO ARE CURRENTLY STILL LIVING WITH THE EFFECTS OF "ORANGE" OR THEIR FAMILIES OR THEIR AFFECTED OFFSPRING WOULD AGREE WITH THE ADMIRAL.

I MUST ALSO INTERJECT THAT WE DID NOT ACCEPT THE WORN-OUT PHRASES. "I WAS JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS" OR "I WAS UNAWARE OF WHAT WAS REALLY GOING ON" FROM THOSE AT THE NUREMBERG TRIALS. MANY WHO USED THOSE EXCUSES WERE HANGED.

But it’s not just families in Vietnam that are affected. Here in Australia, where almost 60,000 troops served in the war, a growing number of veterans, their children and now grandchildren believe they’re battling with the effects of Agent Orange exposure.

Dr. Wayne Dwernychuk, a retired senior scientist, adviser with Hatfield, and Agent Orange specialist, warns that “countless more generations could be affected in the future”. Research suggests that another six to twelve generations will have to pass before dioxin stops affecting the genetic code.

JAPAN HAS SAID THEIR PEOPLE WERE AFFECTED ON OKINAWA. There is an English language version of their film "Defoliated Island", a Japaneseaward-winning documentary about the usage of Agent Orange on Okinawaduring the Vietnam War. Produced by Okinawa TV station, QAB, it won national acclaim in Japan when it was first aired in May 2012.

WE WERE NOT AT WAR WITH JAPAN, AUSTRALIA, LAOS, CAMBODIA...OR WITH CHILDREN, WERE WE?

WHAT ABOUT THE INNOCENT VICTIMS? WHY HAS AMERICA FOUGHT SO HARD TO DENY THE OBVIOUS...RESPONSIBILITY FOR THESE BROKEN LIVES?

HOW MANY MORE WILL WE SEE, FOR HOW MUCH LONGER?

WHAT BEGAN AS 'OPERATION HADES' CHANGED ITS NAME TO 'OPERATION RANCH HAND', BUT HELL IS WHAT THEY UNLEASHED...Operation Ranch Hand, whose motto was “Only We Can Prevent Forests” (a shameful takeoff of Smokey the Bear’s admonition), was a desperate, costly and ultimately futile effort to make it a little harder for the National Liberation Front soldiers from North Vietnam to join and supply their comrades-in-arms in the south. Both the guerilla fighters in the south and the NLF army had been fighting to liberate Vietnam from the exploitive colonial domination from foreign nations such as imperial France (that began colonizing Vietnam in 1874), then Japan (during WWII), then the United States (since France’s expulsion after their huge military defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954) and then against its own nation’s US-backed fascist/military regime in South Vietnam that was headed by the brutal and corrupt President Diem.

[The military's operation] consisted of spraying a variety of highly toxic polychlorinated herbicide solutions that contained a variety of chemicals that are known to be (in addition to killing plant life) human and animal mitochondrial toxins, immunotoxins, hormone disrupters, genotoxins, mutagens, teratogens, diabetogens and carcinogens that were manufactured by such amoral multinational corporate chemical giants like Monsanto, Dow Chemical, DuPont and Diamond Shamrock (now Valero Energy).

All were eager war profiteers whose CEOs and share-holders somehow have always benefited financially from America’s wars. Such non-human entities as Monsanto and the weapons manufacturers don’t care if the wars that they can profit from are illegal or not, war crimes or not; if they can make money they will be there at the trough.

They are however, expert at duping the Pentagon into paying exorbitantly high prices for inferior, unnecessary or dangerous war materiel. One only needs to recall Vice President Dick Cheney’s Halliburton Corporation and that company’s no-bid multibillion dollar contracts that underserved U.S. soldiers during the past three wars, but enriched any number of One-Percenters. Agent Orange in Vietnam, “Apocalypse Still”. The Children of War Bear Silent Witness to the Scourge. August 03, 2015

According to Vietnamese estimates, the millions of gallons of Agent Orange that soaked Vietnam during the 1960s eventually killed or injured 400,000 people and reportedly contributed to birth defects in 500,000 children.

Chillingly, its effects are still being felt, not only among older Vietnamese, whose cancers and other illnesses are often linked to Agent Orange, but among second- and third-generation children of the war, whose twisted bodies and crippled minds bear silent witness to the scourge.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO FUTURE GENERATIONS OF AMERICAN CIVILIANS BECAUSE OF THIS DEADLY TOXIN?

AS MY FRIEND AND I TALKED THE OTHER DAY WE BOTH REALIZED SHE NEVER KNEW WHAT TO LOOK FOR AS SYMPTOMS IN HER SON BEYOND THE MOST OBVIOUS THAT MOST MOTHERS WILL NOTICE WHEN "SOMETHING ISN'T QUITE RIGHT" WITH THEIR CHILDREN. GIVEN THAT, I HOPE YOU WHO MAY HAVE LIVED, OR LIVE NOW NEAR U.S. FOREST LANDS THAT HAVE SOLD TIMBER, OR WHO HAVE USED THE DEADLY CARCINOGENIC PRODUCT 'ROUNDUP' OR OTHERS LIKE IT THAT CONTAIN THE STILL-IN-USE CHEMICAL KNOWN AS 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D).

PLEASE GO SEE THE LONG LIST OF PRODUCTS ON THE MARKET TODAY THAT CONTAIN 2,4-D LISTED BY THE EPA <HERE>. THERE ARE 12 LONG PAGES OF THESE PRODUCTS...12 PAGES! AVOID THOSE LIKE YOU'D AVOID THE PLAGUE.

TO SEE A VERY SHORT LIST OF MONSANTO-OWNED COMPANIES, MERGERS, ETC, GO <HERE> AND FOLLOW LINKS TO EVEN MORE.

A scientist wrote in an email "...we would be keeping the cost down by us doing the writing and they would just edit & sign their names."

BELOW IS AN EXCERPT FROM AN IN-DEPTH ARTICLE ABOUT 'ROUNDUP'/GLYPHOSATE. In March 2015, using research on both glyphosate alone and the complete formulations of Roundup and other herbicides, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared glyphosate a probable human carcinogen. The IARC report noted an association between non-Hodgkin lymphoma and glyphosate, significant evidence that the chemical caused cancer in lab animals, and strong evidence that it damaged human DNA.

Independent scientists have been reporting since at least 1991
that pesticides containing glyphosate along with other ingredients were
more dangerous than glyphosate on its own. More recently, two papers — one published in 2002, the other
in 2004 — showed that Roundup and other glyphosate-containing weed
formulations were more likely to cause cell-cycle dysregulation, a
hallmark of cancer, than glyphosate alone. In 2005, researchers showed that Roundup was more harmful to rats’ livers than its “active ingredient” by itself. And a 2009
study showed that four formulations of Roundup were more toxic to human
umbilical, embryonic, and placental cells than glyphosate by itself.

The USDVA presumes that 14 different diseases and disorders are related to Agent Orange exposure when diagnosed in “boots-on-the-ground” veterans and certain other veterans groups. Certain birth defects in the children of Vietnam veterans may also be the result of Agent Orange exposure.

Early diagnosis and treatment are a veteran’s best hope for cure or successful management of an Agent Orange-related disease. This website provides a list of the diseases and disorders presumed by the USDVA to be related to Agent Orange exposure and the symptoms associated with these diseases:

Symptoms, dependent on various diseases diagnosed:fatigue, anemia (low red blood cell count), weight loss, numbness and tingling in limbs; excessive oiliness of the skin and the appearance of numerous blackheads, often accompanied by fluid-filled cysts and dark body hair; fever, night sweats, itching, loss of appetite, swelling in the lymph nodes in neck, armpits, and groin also may occur; bone pain, unexplained bone fractures, repeated infections, weakness or numbness in the legs, abnormal proteins in the blood or urine and high level of calcium in the blood; abdominal pain or swelling, chest pain or trouble breathing; blisters on areas of the skin exposed to the sun such as the face, arms, and hands followed by crusting and scarring; hyperpigmentation; increased hair growth on areas exposed to the sun; and liver damage; a new cough, dry cough, or cough that doesn’t go away, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, chest pain, hoarseness, difficulty swallowing, voice changes, sore throat or earache, feeling of a lump in the throat.

The fatty tissues of exposed Vietnam vets, even decades after exposure, continue to have measureable levels of dioxins.

Dioxin’s chemical name is TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachloro-dibenzo-para-dioxin). It has no commercial value but is an unintended and undesirable by-product of the industrial-strength manufacture of polychlorinated pesticides, PVC plastics, the burning of municipal waste and the wood pulp/paper industry (in the process of bleaching of pulp wood products by chlorine – as has been the case with the generations-long contamination of the St Louis River with various toxic chlorocarbon by-products from various paper mills).

WHERE ELSE COULD WE HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO CHEMICALS IN AGENT ORANGE?

Included in the class of “dioxin-like” compounds are PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) which were once widely used as coolant fluids in electrical transformers, cutting fluids for machining operations, carbonless copy paper and in heat transfer fluids and are now commonly found in fish and other animals. WAR IS BIG BUSINESS

In past practice, it pays to go to war because the loser of the warring countries tend to see their economy rejuvenated and their cities rebuilt when war is over, but not all. So, whenever there is a chance to make money on a war, other countries come out of the woodwork and all of a sudden, it becomes everyone's war.

The US, like many of the other countries who joined in, stood to make billions of dollars filling the demands for supplies and it was soldiers who dearly paid the price with their lives and now years later, with their health and that of their families.

Two of the largest US chemical companies were asked to fill South Vietnam's herbicide request. However, Congress was conflicted because as part of the Geneva Convention, chemical warfare was a violation.YES, CHEMICAL WARFARE IN VIETNAM DID VIOLATE THE GENEVA CONVENTION. Monsanto and Dow Chemical didn't stay conflicted for long.

The Geneva Convention says if a country requires supplies from any company in war time, then the company must supply it.

That they were paid handsomely did not go unnoticed.

THE DAMAGE IS DONE, BUT CHEMICALS (PESTICIDES, HERBICIDES, FUNGICIDES, DEFOLIANTS) ARE STILL IN USE THAT ARE KNOWN TO BE CARCINOGENIC, KNOWN TO CAUSE BIRTH DEFECTS.

BUT, MAYBE BECAUSE THOSE CHEMICALS ARE PRODUCED BY COMPANIES THAT HELPED THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT SLYLY COMMIT WAR CRIMES IN ASIA, THE U.S.GOVERNMENT SIDES WITH THOSE VERY COMPANIES TO PREVENT THEM FROM BEING BANKRUPTED OR PUT OUT OF BUSINESS BY PEOPLE THEY ARE KILLING?

MAYBE THOSE COMPANIES HAD SHARED THEIR STUDIES AND SHOWN THE GOVERNMENT HOW TOXIC TO HUMANS THEY WERE PRIOR TO THEIR USE IN WAR AND NOW USE THAT AGAINST THEM TO PREVENT BEING BANKRUPTED BY FULL DISCLOSURE? SUCH HAS HAPPENED BEFORE.

OverviewBased on new evidence and a review of prior studies, the committee for Update 2012 did not find any new significant associations between the relevant exposures and adverse outcomes in future generations. Current evidence supports the findings of earlier studies. I HAVE TO BELIEVE THAT ONE DAY SOON THAT WILL CHANGE AND THEY WILL BE FORCED BY AMERICAN CITIZENS TO TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS.

IN CONCLUSION, FOR ANY VETERANS READING HERE WHOSE OFFSPRING HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY YOUR EXPOSURE TO AGENT ORANGE, THERE IS NOT ONE SINGLE REASON FOR YOU TO BLAME YOURSELF OR FEEL GUILTY ABOUT ANYTHING. YOU WERE LIED TO WHEN THEY SAID IT WAS HARMLESS, LIED TO AFTER THEY KNEW IT WASN'T, AND ARE STILL BEING LIED TO TODAY.

MANY IN THIS NATION ARE GRATEFUL FOR YOUR SERVICE.

MANY REALIZE THE HELL YOU'RE GOING THROUGH NOW AND ONLY WANT TO HELP. WHATEVER THOSE OF US WHO STAND WITH YOU FROM AFAR CAN DO TO HELP, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS ASK. PLEASE, ASK!

YOU FOUGHT FOR US THEN, WE'RE WILLING TO FIGHT FOR YOU NOW.

FOR MY BELOVED FRIEND AND ALL LIKE HER GOING THROUGH HELL WONDERING WHAT COMES NEXT, YOU'RE NOT ALONE. MANY ARE ALSO WILLING TO DO WHATEVER WE CAN FOR YOU TO BRING ATTENTION TO YOUR SEARCH FOR ANSWERS, FOR JUSTICE, FOR RESEARCH, FOR HOPE. WE'RE ALWAYS WILLING TO LISTEN, TO BE AVAILABLE TO DO WHATEVER YOU NEED US TO DO TO GIVE EVEN SMALL RELIEF OR COMFORT.

TO ANY WITH FRIENDS OR FAMILY WHO ARE IN THIS GREAT BATTLE AGAINST AGENT ORANGE, PLEASE BE CONSTANTLY AVAILABLE TO OFFER STRENGTH, HELP, TO LET THEM KNOW THEY ARE NOT FORGOTTEN OR ABANDONED IN THESE DESPERATE TIMES.

Thursday, August 3, 2017

OVER 100,000 PAGES OF EPA DOCUMENTS AND OTHER HAZARDOUS CHEMICAL STUDIES HAVE BEEN RESCUED FROM A BARN IN OREGON THAT SHOW, AMONG MANY OTHER THINGS, THAT THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE CONTINUED TO SPRAY THE TWO HERBICIDES USED IN AGENT ORANGE, 2,4-D AND 2,4,5-T AS A "WEED-KILLER" AFTER ITS HORRIBLE EFFECTS WERE MADE KNOWN IN VIETNAM, AFTER OUR TROOPS BEGAN SHOWING SIGNS OF SUCCUMBING TO ITS POISONS, AFTER THE GOVERNMENT WAS WARNED HOW HIGHLY TOXIC TO HUMANS THIS SUBSTANCE WAS.

AT LEAST 20,000 POUNDS OF 2,4,5-T WAS SPRAYED OVER ALSEA, OREGON FOR FIVE YEARS, EVEN AFTER LOCALS PROTESTED WHEN THEY BECAME ILL FROM THE SPRAYING.

IT HAPPENED IN MANY, MANY MORE PLACES THAN OREGON, BUT THIS IS WHERE THE STORY BEGINS.IT MAY NEVER END.

[MY NOTE: I AM SEARCHING FOR A LIST OR A MAP OF ALL AREAS KNOWN TO HAVE BEEN SPRAYED WITH THESE TOXINS. WHEN/IF I FIND THAT, I WILL POST IT IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW THIS BLOG ENTRY. UPDATE: 04 AUGUST 2017, I POSTED 2 COMMENTS WITH LINKS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BENEATH THIS BLOG ENTRY.]

THAT ARTICLE MENTIONED THE LADY WHO BUSTED THE EPA."A Bitter Fog: Herbicides and Human Rights", by Carol Van Strum.

IT ALSO MENTIONS ANOTHER AREA WHERE THE SAME 'HERBICIDES' WERE USED TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE RESIDENTS THERE. "..dioxin-laced road oil in Times Beach, Missouri..."

NOW, 34 YEARS LATER, IT ALL BEGINS TO FINALLY COME TO LIGHT. For decades, some of the dirtiest, darkest secrets of the chemical industry have been kept in Carol Van Strum’s barn. [T]he listing, 80-year-old structure in rural Oregon housed more than 100,000 pages of documents obtained through legal discovery in lawsuits against Dow, Monsanto, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Forest Service, the Air Force, and pulp and paper companies, among others.

As of today, those documents and others that have been collected by environmental activists will be publicly available through a project called the Poison Papers. Together, the library contains more than 200,000 pages of information and “lays out a 40-year history of deceit and collusion involving the chemical industry and the regulatory agencies that were supposed to be protecting human health and the environment,” said Peter von Stackelberg, a journalist who along with the Center for Media and Democracy and the Bioscience Resource Project helped put the collection online."EFFECTS FROM THE SPRAYING OF AGENT ORANGE CHEMICALS OVER THAT AREA WERE CARRIED OUT WITH DOCUMENTED HARMFUL EFFECTS TO ALL LIFE THERE FROM 1972 THROUGH 1977, BUT IT WASN'T UNTIL 1983 THAT THE FOREST SERVICE AGREED TO STOP THE SPRAYING, DESPITE EVIDENCE OF THE DAMAGE DONE TO AMERICAN CITIZENS, INCLUDING CHILDREN, INFANTS AND THE UNBORN OF PREGNANT WOMEN WHO WERE LIVING BENEATH ALL THAT SPRAYING.

AS YOU WILL SEE BELOW, THAT WAS THE TIP OF A HUGE ICEBERG OF DECEIT, LIES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY BY GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND CHEMICAL COMPANIES ACROSS AMERICA.

THE FIND OF ALL THIS DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE IS NOW KNOWN AS "THE POISON PAPERS". THAT THE PAPERS ARE GENUINE HAS BEEN DEMONSTRATED IN COURT CASES AGAINST THE FOREST SERVICE AND CHEMICAL COMPANIES, AND SHOWS THE COLLUSION BETWEEN OUR EPA, WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT US, AND THE PERPETRATORS OF THESE CRIMES.

"As in Vietnam, the chemicals hurt people and animals in Oregon, as well as the plants that were their target. Immediately after they were sprayed, Van Strum’s children developed nosebleeds, bloody diarrhea, and headaches, and many of their neighbors fell sick, too. Several women who lived in the area had miscarriages shortly after incidents of spraying.

Locals described finding animals that had died or had bizarre deformities — ducks with backward-facing feet, birds with misshapen beaks, and blinded elk; cats and dogs that had been exposed began bleeding from their eyes and ears.

At a community meeting, residents decided to write to the Forest Service detailing the effects of the spraying they had witnessed.

“We thought that if they knew what had happened to us, they wouldn’t do it anymore,” Van Strum said recently, before erupting into one of the many bursts of laughter that punctuate her conversation.

The EPA’s registration of 2,4-D and other pesticides was based on fraudulent data from a company called Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories. That case led to a decision, in 1983, to stop all aerial herbicide spraying by the Forest Service.

“We didn’t think of ourselves as environmentalists, that wasn’t even a word back then,” Van Strum said. “We just didn’t want to be poisoned.”

Twodocuments, for instance, detailed experiments that Dow contracted a University of Pennsylvania dermatologist to conduct on prisoners in the 1960s to show the effects of TCDD, a particularly toxic contaminant found in 2,4,5-T.

Another document, from 1985, showed that Monsanto had sold a chemical that was tainted with TCDD to the makers of Lysol, who, apparently unaware of its toxicity, used it as an ingredient in their disinfectant spray for 23 years.

Yet another, from 1990, detailed the EPA policy of allowing the use of hazardous waste as inert ingredients in pesticides and other products 'under certain circumstances'."

THE NUMBERS OF AMERICANS AFFECTED BY ALL THIS ARE STAGGERING, BUT WE HAVEN'T SEEN ALL THE EVIDENCE AGAINST THESE COMPANIES AND THE EPA YET. HOW MANY WILL BE GRADUALLY EXPOSED IN THE FUTURE REMAINS TO BE SEEN.

"The sound always came first, a low buzz that grew and grew until it roared through the valley. Then the olive-colored plane appeared overhead, flying low. In its wake was a thick shower of oily droplets making a long, slow fall to the forested gullies below.

Kids on the Apache reservation back then chased the planes over gem-laden hills, past the flame-yellow salt cedars lining the banks of the Gila River. If they arrived ahead of the planes, they stood under the mysterious, oily rain, waiting for rainbows.

“We just played in it, drank the water with it in there, ate the food we hung out to dry covered in it,” said Mike Stevens, 62. “Didn’t know what it was.”

The planes were delivering a chemical cocktail with components similar to Agent Orange, the powerful herbicide that laid bare the jungles of Vietnam during the 1960s to allow American warplanes to peer into guerrilla encampments."

ANOTHER COVER-UP OF AGENT ORANGE DURING REAGAN'S ADMINISTRATION PROVEN. "Charges of a White House cover-up have been substantiated by a report from the House Government Operations Committee. That report, released August 9, 1990, charges that officials in the Reagan Administration purposely “controlled and obstructed” a federal Agent Orange study in 1987 because it did not want to admit government liability in cases involving the toxic herbicides. If as the report states the EPA studies were skewed to limit government liability, then Dioxin levels that already warranted restrictions, calling for a Alternative Treatment Technologies (clean up) plan, are likely much higher than reported."

THE LIES AND COVER-UPS ARE BLATANT, BUT DENIED BY THE EPA, WHICH CONTROLS WHAT IS RELEASED UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT AND WHICH HAS NEVER RELEASED ALL THE REQUESTED DATA.

"The EPA never released the full results of the “Alsea study,” as it was called, and insisted it had lost many of them.

But a lab chemist provided Van Strum with what he said was the analysis of the test results he had been hired to do for the EPA, which showed the samples from water, various animals, and “products of conception” were significantly contaminated with TCDD.

When confronted, the EPA claimed there had been a mix-up and that the samples were from another area. IF THE EPA HAD INDEED "LOST" THOSE DOCUMENTS, HOW WOULD THEY KNOW THE STUDIES WERE FROM "ANOTHER AREA"? Van Strum filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the results and, for years, battled in court to get to the bottom of what happened. Though the EPA provided more than 34,000 pages in response to her request (which Van Strum carefully numbered and stored in her barn), the agency never released all the results of the study or fully explained what had happened to them or where the contaminated samples had been taken. Eventually, Van Strum gave up.

The EPA declined to comment for this story."

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS AGAIN AND AGAIN WHEN CITIZENS, VICTIME, TRY TO SUE THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR HARM.THEY HAVE DEEP POCKETS AND CAN KEEP CASES IN COURT SO LONG THAT PEOPLE HAVE TO GIVE UP.

WAS THIS ONE OF THE REASONS THE EPA DELETED OVER 3 MILLION EPA TEXT MESSAGES? "Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials only archived 86 text messages out of 3.1 million agency employees sent and received in 2015, according to a federal watchdog’s report made public by House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Chairman Lamar Smith.

The EPA Office of Inspector General (IG) released the report requested by the Texas Republican, which described enormous 'text message retention problems' within the EPA. One unnamed senior official configured his phone to automatically delete texts after 30 days.

“A better process for maintaining this type of official correspondence to provide for congressional requests and Freedom of Information Act practices is lacking and needs to be addressed. I look forward to hearing how EPA specifically plans to address the deficits outlined by the IG report,” Smith said.Smith requested the IG report in November 2014 after learning high-ranking EPA officials, including EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, may have deleted texts to hide official business."

A DEEP, PERSONAL TRAGEDY

"Van Strum had to make peace with not fully understanding a personal tragedy, too.In 1977, her house burned to the ground and her four children died in the fire. Firefighters who came to the scene said the fact that the whole house had burned so quickly pointed to the possibility of arson. But an investigation of the causes of the fire was never completed. WHY NOT?WERE THEY AFRAID OF RETRIBUTION FROM THOSE WHO MIGHT HAVE BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF ARSON?

Van Strum suspected some of her opponents might have set the fire. It was a time of intense conflict between local activists and employees of timber companies, chemical manufacturers, and government agencies over the spraying of herbicides. A group of angry residents in the area near Van Strum’s home had destroyed a Forest Service helicopter that had been used for spraying.

And, on one occasion, Van Strum had come home to find some of the defenders of the herbicides she was attacking in court on her property.

THE TIMBER INDUSTRY RULED THAT AREA OF THE NATION, AND COMMUNITIES RELIED ON BIG TIMBER FOR JOBS, AND LOCAL BUSINESS INCOME. THERE IS AN ONGOING BATTLE TO BRING BACK THE CLEAR-CUTTING OF THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF FORESTLAND THERE. MANY DON'T CARE WHAT EFFECTS THAT HAS ON HUMANS, ANIMALS, WATER SOURCES OR THE ENVIRONMENT AS A WHOLE. THEY JUST WANT THE MONEY.

“I’ve accepted that I’ll never really know” what happened, said Van Strum, who never rebuilt her house and now lives in an outbuilding next to the cleared site where it once stood.

But her commitment to the battle against toxic chemicals survived the ordeal.

“If it was intentional, it was the worst thing that ever happened to me,” she said. “After that, there was nothing that could make me stop.”

Still, after all these years, Van Strum felt it was time to pass on her collection of documents, some of which pertain to battles that are still being waged, so “others can take up the fight.” And the seeds of many of the fights over chemicals going on today can be tied to the documents that sat in her barn.

The Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories scandal is central in litigation over the carcinogenicity of Monsanto’s Roundup, for instance.

And 2,4-D, the other active ingredient in Agent Orange, is still in use."

[MY NOTE: THE EPA REGISTRATION NUMBER FOR 2,4-D IS 34704-120 .]

THAT LAST LINK MAKES A CONNECTION TO WHAT BRAZILIAN SCIENTISTS WERE TRYING TO SAY ABOUT THE FALSE REPORTS BY THE U.S. CDC's CLAIMS THAT THE ZIKA VIRUS WAS CAUSING BIRTH DEFECTS IN THEIR NATION, AS I REPORTED <HERE>, <HERE>, <HERE> AND <HERE> IN EARLY 2016.

ONLY A FEW WEBSITES AND NEWS AGENCIES CARRIED THE TRUTH, OR EVEN MENTIONED IT...

WHEN BRAZIL SHOWED THAT NEIGHBORING NATIONS ALSO INFECTED BY ZIKA DID NOT HAVE AN APPALLING RISE IN BIRTH DEFECTS LIKE BRAZIL HAD, THAT AFRICA, WHERE ZIKA ORIGINATED, DID NOT HAVE SUCH HIGH NUMBERS, BUT THAT AREAS OF AMERICA AND OTHER COUNTRIES WHERE THE MOSQUITO COULD NOT SURVIVE ALSO HAD IDENTICAL HIGH NUMBERS OF THE SAME BIRTH DEFECTS, THE AMERICAN MAINSTREAM MEDIA AND THE CURSED CDC WENT TO BAT FOR THE CHEMICAL COMPANY INVOLVED IN THAT SPRAYING AND MALIGNED AND BULLIED BRAZIL INTO SUBMISSION.

WHY DOESN'T THE EPA ISSUE THOSE WARNINGS TO THE PEOPLE WHERE PESTICIDES KNOWN TO CAUSE BIRTH DEFECTS ARE SPRAYED? BECAUSE NO ONE CAN SUE A MOSQUITO OR A VIRUS, BUT THOUSANDSHAVE SUED THE CHEMICAL COMPANIES. WHO IS THE LEADER OF THE PACK FOR POISONING AMERICA AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD?WHAT COMPANY PROVIDED AGENT ORANGE TO THE MILITARY?HERE'S A HINT...

"[T]he Tribune found, the [EPA] agency’s scientists changed their analysis of a pivotal rat study by Dow, tossing aside signs of kidney trouble that Dow researchers said were caused by 2,4-D.

The EPA scientists who revised that crucial document were persuaded by a Canadian government toxicologist who decided that Dow — a company that has a $1 billion product at stake — had been overly cautious in flagging kidney abnormalities that she deemed insignificant.When Dow later published this study, the company’s scientists likewise dismissed their earlier concerns and changed the most important measure of the chemical’s toxicity so it agreed with the EPA’s less stringent view.

These decisions paved the way for the EPA to approve Dow’s weedkiller Enlist Duo last year and reassure the public that a surge in 2,4-D use [41 TIMES THE ALLOWABLE AMOUNTS OF THIS KNOWN TOXIN] wouldn’t hurt anyone.

THE EPA IS BREAKING FEDERAL LAWS, BUT NO ONE IS CHARGING THEM.

Federal law has required the EPA to protect children from pesticides — chemicals that kill weeds, insects or other harmful organisms — since a National Research Council panel warned lawmakers in the 1990s that exposing fetuses and young kids to these compounds can cause lifelong damage at doses that wouldn’t hurt their parents.

Dr. Philip Landrigan, the pediatrician who chaired that panel, is so alarmed by the potential spike in children’s exposure to 2,4-D that for the last year he has urged EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to reject the “notoriously toxic herbicide.” He is calling for the federal National Toxicology Program to assess the safety of the mix of weedkillers that would be used on new genetically modified crops.

Even some scientists who have spent their professional lives eradicating weeds oppose the new genetically modified crops and the chemical future they foreshadow.

"Those herbicide increases are not OK," said David Mortensen, a professor of weed and applied plant ecology at Pennsylvania State University. "To me, that is unconscionable that we can be OK with that, and I'm not an anti-chemical radical."

EVEN THE STUDIES THE CHEMICAL GIANTS PAID FOR FOUND PROBLEMS, BUT WERE 'SUPPRESSED'. Industry-funded researchers have found kidney trouble before in animals consuming low doses of 2,4-D, the Tribune found. An industry group representing Dow and other 2,4-D manufacturers submitted five studies to the EPA in the 1980s that documented kidney abnormalities in rats and mice at doses far lower than the one the agency now is using to set safety levels for people.

EPA scientists and the trade group agreed three decades ago that the kidney was the "target organ for toxicity" with anomalies seen at doses as low as 5 mg/kg, records show.

The EPA said it has no plans to ask Dow for studies that chronically dose rats with the combination of 2,4-D and glyphosate."

EPA refuses to ban controversial pesticide popular in California"The Trump Administration on Wednesday denied a petition by
environmental groups that sought to ban a common pesticide used on
citrus fruits, apples, cherries and other crops, reversing a push by the
Obama administration to revoke all uses of the pesticide on food after a
government review concluded it could harm children’s brains. U.S. farms use more than 6 million pounds of the chemical each year — about 25 percent of it in California.

The EPA banned home use of chlorpyrifos in 2000 and placed “no-spray” buffer zones around sensitive sites, such as schools, in 2012.

In announcing the decision, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said that by not banning chlorpyrifos he is providing “regulatory certainty” to thousands of American farms that rely on the pesticide."

THE EPA IS A RACKET THAT HAS BEEN BUSTED TIME AND TIME AGAIN, BUT IT IS SO CLOSELY ENTWINED IN THE ARMS OF INDUSTRY, WHICH HAS THE BILLIONS TO FIGHT COURT CASES THAT AVERAGE CITIZENS DON'T HAVE, THAT THE EPA AND ITS BELOVED KILLER COMPANIES GET AWAY WITH MURDER.

WHO WILL BE NEXT...YOU, ME, OUR CHILDREN?

ONCE AGAIN, WE LOSE, AMERICA, AND WALL STREET WINS.

IT'S PURE AND SIMPLE COLLUSION, COMPLICITY, COLLABORATION BETWEEN OUR OWN GOVERNMENT AND THOSE WHO ARE POISONING EVERY ACRE OF CROPLAND, EVERY STREAM, EVERY WATER SOURCE IN AMERICA, AND WE, THE PEOPLE, ARE PAYING WITH OUR LIVES AND THE LIVES OF OUR CHILDREN.

OF THE 62,000+ CHEMICALS CURRENTLY IN EVERYTHING WE USE AND CONSUME, THE EPA DEMANDED TESTS ON ONLY 200.

There is far too little testing of these substances: Only a fraction of the nearly 3,000 high-production-volume (HPV) chemicals — chemicals that have an annual production run of at least one million pounds — have been studied for their potential toxicity.

According to the EPA, the agency has “only been able to require testing on a little more than 200 existing chemicals” out of the 62,000 that have been introduced since the TSCA’s enactment.The EPA has banned just five.

In 2009, Michael Wilson and Megan Schwarzman, environmental health scientists at UC Berkeley, published a damning analysis of U.S. chemical policy, identifying “fundamental weaknesses” in the way the government protects Americans from toxic substances — weaknesses that not only leave the public unprotected, but hamstring the development of a chemical marketplace that is less toxic and more sustainable.

“These policies have largely failed to adequately protect public health or the environment or motivate investment in or scientific exploration of cleaner chemical technologies,” they wrote in the paper, which was published in Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed journal.

“On this trajectory,” they warned, “the United States will face growing health, environmental and economic problems related to chemical exposures and pollution.”

But it wasn’t until the early 1970s when the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), formed in 1969 under the Nixon administration, proposed federal legislation to regulate American commerce in chemical substances.

So why did it take so long for the government to address the potential health and environmental effects of chemicals? It’s a familiar and tragic narrative: Public health regularly takes a back seat to corporate interests. Time and time again, major toxic disasters occur, reminding us just how susceptible humans, animals and the environment are to toxins produced by industrial activity.

While big disasters such as these make national headlines, it was actually a series of festering environmental contamination events around the country — and the community activism that gradually grew around them — that set the stage for the TSCA’s passage.

In their 2002 book Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, public health historians Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner write, “While the discovery of various kinds of industrial pollution had led the EPA to begin pressing for passage of Toxic Substances Control Act, the publicity and seriousness of the vinyl crisis would become the impetus for more assertive efforts to get TSCA passed, with a view toward regulating more chemicals than vinyl chloride.”

In 1976, the global production of plastics was around 50 million metric tons.

Nancy Beach, who was coordinating the EPA’s vinyl chloride (VC) efforts at the time, revealed that exposure to the toxin wasn’t limited to factory workers.

In a private session organized by the National Cancer Institute and attended by representatives from 10 federal agencies, including the FDA, OSHA, CDC and the National Institutes of Health, Beach revealed that some 6 percent of the VC used during PVC production was escaping into the outside air.

“It sounds small,” she said, “but, if one considers that the annual production of PVC in the U.S. is well over 5 billion pounds, a 6 percent loss figure is on the order of 250 million pounds, which is somehow getting out of the workplace.”

By the summer of 1974, the FDA, EPA and Consumer Product Safety Commission moved to prohibit the use of VC in bottles and other consumer goods.

In October, EPA administrator Russell Train announced new air emissions standards for vinyl chloride. The announcement would have far-reaching implications: By framing the VC issue within the larger goal of regulating the hundreds of chemicals that enter the marketplace every year, Train helped pave the way for the passage of the TSCA:

For the past five years, an estimated 600 new chemicals a year have been introduced into U.S. commerce. These chemicals have been sold without any systematic, advanced assessment of their potential impact on human health. As we have learned through our experience, materials such as vinyl chloride, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), asbestos, nitrosamines and several others, we often do not discover how harmful a compound can be until it has become a commonplace item in our everyday life.

Two years after Train’s announcement — and after significant negotiation between the government and industry — the TSCA was finally signed into law by President Ford on Oct. 11, 1976, authorizing the EPA to test and regulate new and existing chemicals.

SO, SINCE 1976, THE EPA HAS HAD THE AUTHORITY TO TEST NEW CHEMICALS BUT HAS TESTED ONLY 200?

Critics of the law are also worried that EPA might lack the resources to effectively regulate. Scott Faber, vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, an environmental and consumer watchdog, said his group found that EPA doesn’t have enough money to review even the most dangerous chemicals on the list.

“The bill doesn’t provide EPA enough money to get through this enormous backlog of old, and in some cases, very dangerous chemicals to assess whether they need to be regulated or even banned,” he said. “It will take EPA decades to get through the thousand most dangerous chemicals that EPA itself has said need urgent review.”

So while Americans wait for the federal government to begin slowly testing and regulating the toxic chemicals encountered everyday, the burden is still on consumers to educate themselves about what toxins could be in the things they buy.

IT COULD TAKE LITERALLY CENTURIES FOR THE EPA TO TEST ALL CHEMICALS WHILE NEW ONES COME INTO USE. I DON'T THINK THEY WILL TEST EVEN 100.

The new law requires EPA to test tens of thousands of unregulated chemicals currently on the market, and the roughly 2,000 new chemicals introduced each year, but quite slowly. The EPA will review a minimum of 20 chemicals at a time, and each has a seven-year deadline. Industry may then have five years to comply after a new rule is made. At that pace it could take centuries for the agency to finish its review.

THE LAW REQUIRES THE EPA TO PROTECT AMERICAN CITIZENS, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, BUT IT'S BROKEN THAT LAW SINCE IT WAS CREATED.

Fighting PhthalatesThese harmful chemicals are lurking in countless products, but companies don’t have to tell us which ones.

PFASs, which stands for perfluoroalkyl substances and includes the category of chemicals known as PFCs, are practically impossible to avoid. Textiles are saturated with the chemicals to make them stain- and moisture-resistant. Sealant tape, ski wax, and floor wax are waterproof thanks to them, and in machinery they reduce gear friction. PFASs are found in our homes, our offices, our supermarkets—practically everywhere.

They are so common in consumer products and manufacturing that they’re practically everywhere—including inside our bodies.

Since the 1930s, scientists have used a family of chemicals called phthalates in an astonishing array of consumer products—from shower curtains to cosmetics to food containers. Phthalates are used for many different purposes: to carry and fragrance and to make those scents last longer, to soften and strengthen plastic, and to help topical products like lotions and cosmetics stick to and penetrate skin. But in the 1990s, when studies showed that phthalates could mimic our body's natural hormones, scientists became concerned about the health effects of these chemicals. PFASs that enter the body through the foods we eat and products we use every day can linger there for years before they are eventually flushed out.

Experts say we should minimize our use of and exposure to these ubiquitous chemicals for two crucial reasons. “First, the structure of PFASs means they resist breakdown in the environment and in our bodies,” says Erik Olson, NRDC’s Health program director. “Second, for some PFASs, even minor levels of exposure can negatively impact our health.”

“Hormones operate on a parts-per-trillion level in the body normally,” says Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist at NRDC, which is working to ensure strong protections and restrictions on phthalates.

“That’s a fraction of a teaspoon in an Olympic-size swimming pool.” Any change in that ratio can interfere with your body’s normal functioning. Like the infamous endocrine disruptors BPA and DDT, phthalates are particularly dangerous to pregnant women and babies. The chemicals pose risks to the development of the reproductive system, brain, and other organs.

In 2008, after it was determined by researchers that a baby could ingest these toxic chemicals simply by chewing on his rubber ducky, Congress outlawed three types of phthalates (DBP, BBP, and DEHP) in all toys and child care products.

DUPONT, ALSO ABOVE THE LAW. DuPont is facing 3,500 lawsuits from people claiming they experienced adverse effects, including cases of kidney cancer, thyroid disease, and pregnancy-induced hypertension, when the company polluted Ohio and West Virginia waterways with the now-banned PFOA/C8. The lawsuits have already cost DuPont millions of dollarsand may lead to more stringent policies and practices.

That was a major step forward, but we’re still stuck with this scary fact: Dozens of types of phthalates still lurk in a dizzying number of everyday products. And it’s impossible to know which ones, exactly, because manufacturers don’t have to tell you. Federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission—as well as states—all play a role in regulating phthalates.

Water systems in 27 states have been contaminated with PFASs, according to data collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

PFASs have even shown up in the bloodstreams of polar bears in the Arctic. “PFASs are so resilient that they’ll still be around millions of years from now,” says NRDC staff scientist Veena Singla.

IT'S THE SAME THING...INDUSTRY MEANS MORE TO THE AMERICAN ECONOMY THAN THE WORKERS THEY HIRE. INDUSTRY IS WHAT'S PROTECTED, WHAT'S ALLOWED TO BREAK EVERY FEDERAL LAW THEY CARE TO, CAUSE THE DEATHS OF THOUSANDS AND GET AWY WITH MURDER.

THE EPA, FDA, USDA AND CONGRESS WILL ALWAYS TAKE CARE OF THE CHEMICAL COMPANIES, THE BIG NUKE BOYS, OIL, COAL AND GAS CORPORATIONS, BIG AGRICULTURE, BIG PHARMA AND THE ONES WHO WILL NEVER BE PROTECTED ...THAT'S US, YOU, I, ALL OF US EXPENDABLE CITIZENS, US COMMON FOLK.

WILL YOU TRY TO IMAGINE WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE?NOTHING THAT WILL CHANGE THE FACT THAT WE ARE VICTIMS OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. BUT, OBVIOUSLY, MOST WILL BE WILLING VICTIMS, OR ELSE WE'D CHANGE THIS AND DEMAND AN END TO THE POISONING OF AMERICA.

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FURTHER READING~FOR MORE OF WHAT'S BEING LEFT OUT OF 'REPORTING' ON SUCH ISSUES BY OUR MAINSTREAM MEDIA PROPAGANDISTS, SEE THE LONG LIST <HERE>

REAL ALL LABELS! Don't use chemical pesticides or herbicides. A simple Google search will show you hundreds of safe alternatives to what Monsanto, Dow and Dupont put out.

Until stronger regulations are in place, you can take the following steps to reduce your exposure to phthalates. Be wary of cosmetics. Because the label on your eye shadow, moisturizer, or nail polish doesn’t have to include a phthalate warning—or even disclose all of the ingredients—you might need to do some investigating. Checking the company’s website or contacting its customer service department might help you find out what’s really inside. But the best choice might be to stick to products with a "no phthalate" label.

Some local farmers in your area are NOT using such POISONS on their small farms. BUY LOCAL, or GROW YOUR OWN VEGETABLES. ALL IT TAKES IS A VERY SMALL SPACE, NOT ACRES. MAKE YOUR OFFICIALS DISCLOSE THEIR WATER TESTING DATA.See if the source of your drinking water comes from a KNOWN POLLUTED WATER SYSTEM.

If you have a private well, test it at least once a year and keep up to date on the status of your aquifer.

Phthalates can seep into food through equipment used in processing plants such as tubing, gloves, conveyor belts, lids, adhesives, and plastic wraps. This is particularly true for fatty foods—one more reason to avoid fast food!

Banish vinyl from your home.

Anything made of this material—shower curtains, mini-blinds, flooring—is almost guaranteed to contain phthalates.

Stop using air freshener. Boiling spices and herbs in a small pot on the stove accomplishes the same thing and usually lasts longer.

This product category is particularly dicey. Case in point: In 2007 NRDC tested 14 popular air fresheners. None listed phthalates as an ingredient, but 12—even some advertised as “all natural” or “unscented”—had them. Even better, try to avoid all fragrance.

Cosmetics and cleaning products may list "fragrance" or "parfum" on their labels that might include phthalates, but the exact ingredients are considered trade secrets. So you often can't determine what is safe.

Put pressure on your favorite companies.

Put pressure on your local news sources to report these things honestly.

Encourage manufacturers to disclose whether their products contain phthalates, and urge retailers to stop selling products that have them.

Change will happen if enough people ask for it. For example, Home Depot and Lowe’s eliminated phthalates from most of their vinyl flooring in 2015; Apple phased the chemicals out of earbuds and power cords in 2013; and more and more cosmetics are being marketed as phthalate free.

Don’t use nonstick cookware, Gore-Tex clothing, personal care products with “PTFE” or “fluoro” ingredients, or textiles made with the original (pre-2000) formulation of Scotchgard.

If you don't need something truly "waterproof," look for coats, hats, boots, and tents labeled “water resistant.” They’re less likely to be treated with PFASs.

Bisphenol A, BPA, is known to cause reproductive harm. 2,4-D has been linked to birth defects, decreased fertility, and improper thyroid function.

Yet this World War II–era weed killer—classified as a possible human carcinogen by the World Health Organization, or WHO—is still on the market.

In fact, its popularity will likely explode as farmers use it on new forms of genetically modified corn and soybeans, including those resistant to Enlist Duo—a new product that combines 2,4-D with glyphosate, the most commonly used pesticide in the United States.

Glyphosate has also been declared a probable human carcinogen by the WHO and may contribute to kidney and liver dysfunction.